Route optimization

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Overview

Route optimization helps you plan efficient routes by minimizing driving time between appointments. ProBase offers several ways to optimize routes: Manual Reordering:

• Reorder Stops - Drag and drop a crew’s appointments into any order you choose directly from the calendar (best for quick, hands-on adjustments). See Reordering stops.

Automatic Optimization:

• Single Crew - Let ProBase calculate the most efficient order for one crew at a time
• Fleet Optimization - Optimize routes across all crews simultaneously (best for daily planning and redistributing work)

Background Optimization:

• Routes are automatically optimized when new appointments are created or assigned to crews
• Enabled via a setting in your team settings page
• Saves time by eliminating manual optimization steps

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Access route optimization

Navigate directly to the Route Optimization page by going to /route-optimization in your browser. The Schedule item in the sidebar stays highlighted when you’re on this page. You’ll see two options:

• Single Crew - Covered in this guide
• Fleet Optimization - See Fleet route optimization below

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Single crew optimization

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Select crew and date

1. Click Single Crew from the route optimization landing page
2. Choose a Crew from the dropdown
3. Select the Date to optimize
4. The page will show all scheduled appointments for that crew on that date

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Optimize the route

Once you have 2 or more appointments assigned to a crew:

1. Click the Optimize Route button
2. The system calculates the most efficient order to visit each stop
3. The optimized route shows:
   • Reordered appointments
   • Scheduled arrival and departure times
   • Drive time between each stop
   • Total route duration
   • Total driving time

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View the optimized route

After optimization, you’ll see:

• The crew’s start and end depot locations (marked S and F on the map)
• All appointment locations in optimized order
• Drive times between stops
• Total route summary with duration and distance

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Apply the optimized route

After reviewing the optimized route, click Apply Changes to update the appointment start and end times in the system. This saves the optimized schedule so your crew can follow it.

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Fleet route optimization

Fleet optimization allows you to optimize routes across multiple crews at once. This is ideal for initial daily planning when you need to distribute work evenly across your teams.

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When to use fleet optimization

Use fleet optimization when you want to:

• Balance workload across multiple crews
• Reassign appointments between crews for better efficiency
• Plan routes for your entire fleet at the start of the day
• Handle unassigned appointments by automatically assigning them to crews

Use single crew optimization when you want to:

• Make quick adjustments to one crew’s schedule
• Fine-tune a route without affecting other crews
• Optimize after adding a single appointment

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How fleet optimization works

Fleet optimization follows a 4-step workflow:

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Applying fleet optimization

When you click Apply Changes, the system:

1. Updates each appointment’s assigned crew
2. Updates start and end times based on the optimized schedule
3. Saves all changes to the database
4. Returns you to the dashboard where you can see the updated routes

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How optimization works

The route optimizer:

• Uses the crew’s start location as the beginning of the route
• Finds the shortest path to visit all appointments
• Returns to the crew’s end location at the end of the day
• Calculates realistic drive times based on road networks
• Schedules arrival and departure times for each stop

The optimizer uses OpenRouteService to calculate driving routes and automatically reorders stops to minimize total driving time.

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Limitations

Route optimization (both single crew and fleet) requires:

• Appointments must have geocoded property addresses
• Crews must have start and end locations configured
• At least 2 appointments are needed (single appointments don’t need optimization)
• For fleet optimization, you need at least 1 crew with a configured location
• Optimization works best when appointments are in a reasonable geographic area

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Automatic route optimization

Automatic route optimization saves you time by optimizing routes whenever appointments are created or assigned to crews. This feature eliminates the need to manually run optimization after every scheduling change.

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Enable automatic optimization

1. Click Settings in the sidebar under “My Business”
2. Scroll to the Scheduling section
3. Toggle Auto-optimize routes to ON

Routes will now be automatically optimized when:

• New appointments are created with a crew assignment
• Appointments are reassigned to different crews
• Jobs are created with scheduled appointments

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When automatic optimization runs

When enabled, routes are automatically optimized for a crew when:

• Creating a new job with an appointment assigned to that crew
• Creating a new appointment and assigning it to a crew
• Accepting a proposal that creates a job with an assigned crew
• Reassigning an existing appointment to a different crew

The optimization runs in the background and updates appointment times to reflect the most efficient route order.

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Manual vs automatic optimization

Use automatic optimization when:

• You want to save time and eliminate manual optimization steps
• Your crews have consistent schedules with multiple daily appointments
• You create appointments throughout the day and want routes updated automatically

Use manual optimization when:

• You want full control over when routes are optimized
• You prefer to review optimization results before applying them
• You make batch scheduling changes and want to optimize once at the end

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Choosing between single crew and fleet optimization